Electric railway



(No Model.) l

R. M. HUNTER. ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

No. 445,674 Patented P61. s, 1891..

wlTNESSE5: FIG? 3 INYSMTOR:

MQW M? M/w W trier..

RUDOLPH M. HUNTER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNEASSIGNMENTS, TO THE*THOMSON-HOUSTON ELECTRIC COMPANY,

OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 445,674, dated February3, 1891.

Application led January 14, 1889. Serial No. 296,292. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern,.-

' Be it known that I, RUDOLPH M. HUNTER, of the city and county ofPhiladelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement inRoad-Bed Structures and Current-Collecting Devices, (Case 79,) of whichthe following is a specication.

My invention has reference to electric rail- Ways; and it consists ofcertain improvements, all of which are fully set forth in the followingspecification and shown in the accompanying drawings, which form partthereof.

My invention relates, particularly, to the road-bed structure and thecollectors on the car, which Work in connection with the conduit andconductors. Considered generically, my invention consists in locatingthe conduit, in Which is housed one or more electric conductors, outsideof the track and preferably close to one of the rails. Thecurrentcollector is carried by the car upon the outside of thewheel-base, so as to depend into the conduit and make connection withthe conductor. The collector is preferably supported from the axle boxor boxes directly or indirectly, or may be supported by a framesupported from the axles independently of the car-body, which latterrests upon springs. In practice the conduit could be located at thehighest part of the street or in the space between the tracks, and thusavoid the excessive quantities of surface water Which usually run in theroad between the rails ot' the track. The conduit may be formed in anysuitable manner, either as part of the roadbed structure or as aseparate conduit secured in fixed relation with the rail to which it isadjacent.

In the drawings, Figure l is a cross-section of a railway and carembodying niyilnprovements. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of same With theconduit cut away, and 3 is a crosssection of a road-bed and truck ofamodiiied form of my invention.

D is the car or Vehicle or truck, and has the axles F, provided withwheels f, which axles are received in axle-boxes F in the usual Way. Thecar-frame D rests upon said boxes F through the mediation of springs.

H is the electric motor, and is supported upon a frame G, carried by theaxles in any suitable manner.

U are the rails of the road-bed and are supported upon cross-ties orframes C.

A is a conduit arranged upon the outside of the track-rails andpreferably close to the outer edge of the rail. In Fig. l this conduitis formed in conjunction with the rail by arranging a longitudinalStringer V upon the cross-ties C outside of the rails and placinga plateor slot iron K upon its upper edge, so as to form a slot 7.; betweensaid plate and rail U. lVithin the conduit are the two conductors B B,one of which is for positive current and the other for negative currentreceived from the generator Z2.

L L are tWo collectors depending from the axle-boxes F and adapted tohave lateral movement by being loosely guided by pins Z in the bottom ofthe axle-boxes. Springs l are employed to cause the collector to runclose to the edge of the plate or slot iron K; but such springs may bedispensed with, if desired. It is evident that Vby making the guidesloose iits the collector Would have provision for slight rotary motionon a vertical axis. These collectors are provided with contacts a, whichrun in contact with the conductors B and supply current to the niotor Hby the motor-circuit N, which is provided With a suitable regulator M.The inotor may be mechanically connected With the axles in any suitableand Well-known inannen.

As shown in Fig. 2,'there are two collectors, one under each axle-box,and While one is designed to collect current of one polarity and theother to collect current of the other polarity, yet it is evident thateach collector may collect current from both conductors B by theaddition of the second contacts indicated in dotted lines. Thesecollectors are arranged ina vertical line through the axle and Wheel,and thus are not shifted when the vehicle is turning corners. Theprovision for lateral movement is to compensate for irregularities inthe line of the slot.

In the modified form of my invention shown in Fig. 3 wc have the usualroad-bed structure of a street-railway with the conduit A formedseparate and secured to the crossties c.

Il B are the conductors, as before, and are insulated from the sides ofthe conduit, which is shown as of metal.

K I( are the top plates or overhanging ledges of the conduit and Y formthe slot. This conduit may be constructed in any de sirable manner, andfor rigidity should be sccured to the rail U by tics T, arranged atintervals. In this iigure the collector L is shown as pivoted on avertical axis at g to a laterally-movable frame G', supported by theframe G on the axles. By this means the collector may be arrangedbetween the axles. The provision for self-adjnstment in this case ispractically no greater than that shown in Figs. land 2.

I do not limit myself to the details of construction, as the variousparts or devices may vbe modified in various ways without departing fromthe spirit of my invention.

Any matters set out in this application but not claimed therein are notdedicated to the public, but form subject-mattei' of my application,Serial No. 204,583, of 1886.

IIaving now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Iletters Patent, is-

I. In an electric railway, the combination of a stationary source ofelectric supply, bared working-conductors extending along the path ofthe vehicle, an electrically-propelled vehicle, and depending collectorsto receive electricity from said bared conductors, supported by theaxle-box of the vehicle, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In an electric railway, the combination of a stationary source ofelectric supply, bared working-concluctors extending along the path ofthe vehicle, an electrical]y-propelled vehicle, and depending collectorsto receive electricity from said bared conductors, supported by theaxle-box of the vehicle and arranged upon the outside of the wheels,substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. In an electric railway, the combination of a stationary source ofelectric supply, bared workin g-conductors extendin g along the path ofthe vehicle, an electrically-propelled vehicle, and depending`collectors to receive electricity from said bared conductors, supportedby the axle-box of the vehicle, arranged upon the outside of the wheelsand inline with their tread upon the rails or in a vertical line throughthe axles, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

4. The combination of the track-rails of a railway with an electricconduit arranged upon the outside of the track and close to or adjacentto one rail thereof, and an insulated working-con ductor containedwithin said conduit.

5. The combination of the track-rails of a railway with an electricconduit arranged upon the outside of the track and close to or adjacentto one rail thereof, and a positive and negative insulatedworking-conductor contained within said conduit.

ti. The combination of the track-rails of a railway with an electricconduit arranged upon the outside of the track and close to or adjacentto one rail thereof, an insulated working-conductor contained withinsaid conduit, a traveling vehicle, and a current-collecting devicearranged outside of the wheel-base of said vehicle and depending intothe conduit for making connection with the working-conductor.

7. The combination of the track-rails of a railway with an electricconduit arranged upon the outside of the track and close to or adjacentto one rail thereof, and positive and negative insulatedworking-conductors contained within said conduit, a traveling vehicle,and two current-collectors carried therebyT and arranged upon theoutside of the wheelbase, one in advance of the other, and depending`into the conduit for making connection with the working-conductors.

S. The combination of a railway-track with a conduit arranged upon theoutside thereof and a working-conductor housed therein and insulatedtherefrom.

9. The combination of a railwayftrack with a conduit arranged upon theoutside thereof and a working-conductor housed therein and insulatedtherefrom, and common supporting cross-ties for both the rails andconduit.

l0. The combination of a railway, a conduit arranged outside of thetrack, an insulated working-conductor housed within said conduit, andconnections between the track structure and conduit, whereby they aremaintained in relatively fixed positions.

ll. In an electric railway, the combination of a traveling vehicle, astationary source of electric supply, a bared working-conductorextending along the pat-h of the Vehicle, and a current-collector deviceof less width than the diameter of the wheel and supported immediatelyoutside of the wheel of the vehicle.

l2. The combination of the track-rails of a railway with an electricslotted conduit arranged. upou the outside of the track and close to oradjacent to one rail thereof, and positive and negative bared conductorscontained within the conduit and consisting of longitudinal bars havingvertical or substantially vertical faces exposed to a vertical planeextending through the slot.

In testimony of which inventionI hereunto set my hand.

RUDOLPH M. HUNTER.

lVitnesses:

ERNEST HOWARD HUNTER, E. M. BRECKINREED.

IOO

IIO

IZO

